2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

While the final day of the inaugural Global Poker Masters was playing out at Portomaso Casino at the Hilton Hotel, the first-ever European Poker Tour stop in Malta was kicking off their €5,300 buy-in Main Event. Day 1a of the EPT Malta attracted 260 players, and after eight 75-minute levels of play only 142 would remain in contention.

Leading the pack with 180,300 is Greece's Evangelos Tsairis, who finished 18th in the EPT Deauville Main Event back in January for €22,160. Nipping at his heels are some accomplished players including online star Ignat "0Human0" Liviu (161,900), high-stakes pro Alec Torelli (133,100), and EPT10 Barcelona High Roller champ Thomas Muehloecker (121,200).

Day 1a got off to a fast start with former EPT champ Michael Tureniec bowing out in Level 1, making him the first elimination of the tournament. From there, the eliminations came at a steady pace and included EPT Vienna champ Oleksii Khoroshenin; last year's EPT Grand Final winner Antonio Buonanno; World Poker Tour champ Paul Klann; high rollers Stephen Chidwick, Paul Newey and Jeff Rossiter; Team PokerStars' Fatima Moreira De Melo and Liv Boeree; and Miss Finland, Sara Chafak.

Chafak actually fell in the last level of the night after she got her stack all in on a board reading holding the . Unfortunately for her, Thomas Berends held the for a better flush. Just like that Chafak was out while Berends went on to bag.

Others who survived Day 1a were John O'Shea (114,200), Simon Higgins (96,700), Fedor Holz (87,100), Jack Salter (73,600), Sam Chartier (67,000), Simon Ravnsbaek (47,000), Dimitar Danchev (40,600), and Ole Schemion (36,200), who jumped into the mix after Team Germany was eliminated from the Global Poker Masters. Likewise, Team PokerStars Pros Jan Heitmann (75,600), Marcin Horecki (66,400), and Theo Jorgensen (52,900), as well as PokerStars Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (66,700).

Day 1b will get underway at Noon local time on Monday. The plan is the same in that the field will play eight levels. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way, so be sure to check back then. In the meantime, check out this video of Team Italy's victory in the Global Poker Masters:

Just prior to players bagging for the night, Miss Finland, Sara Chafak, was eliminated from the EPT Malta Main Event.

Her elimination escaped us, but Alex Torelli was kind enough to fill us in on a few details. Thomas Berends had opened and received three callers to see a flop of , and after some bets and calls, three of them made it to the turn. Two checks saw Chafak shove her short stack in, and initial raiser Berends looked her up.

Chafak tabled the for a flush, but it was no good as the Dutchman held the for a better flush.

The tournament staff just announced that the remaining players will play five more hands before bagging and tagging for the night.

We're headed out to grab some notable chip counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1a action.

With 4,275 in the pot and a board reading , Simon Ravnsbaek bet 1,625 from the big blind only to have Miss Finland, Sara Chafak, raised to 3,300 from the under-the-gun position. Not to be outdone, Ravnsbaek three-bet to 7,250, Chafak called, and it was off to the river.

Ravnsbaek was first to act and bet 8,175, which prompted Chafak to quickly fold her hand.

Eros Nastasi moved all in for 7,500 chips from late position and Joao Ribeiro asked for a count out of the big blind. Once that was confirmed he pushed the stack forward and flipped over  . Nastasi had two over cards with   but was drawing dead after the turn of a      board.

It was a coin flip that decided over the double up or nothing for Ole Schemion who was at risk for his last 12,450 chips. The   of the German flipped against Celil Iyidogan's   and the board ran out     .